Neocloud firm Argentum AI in talks for $5 billion AI chip financing, sources say

By Akash Sriram

Oct 27 (Reuters) - Super Micro-backed SMCI.O cloud computing firm Argentum AI is in talks to secure a $5 billion financing deal for AI chips with a major private credit firm, according to two people familiar with the matter.

One of the people said the money would pay for additional chips for the data center Argentum secured in Poland with DL Invest Group, and that the debt is meant for chips leased to customers that do not have investment-grade ratings.

Argentum has secured more than $12 billion in contracted revenue, the person said.

The deal comes as financing for neoclouds, which rent out AI computing power to other companies, has tightened.

Elon Musk wrote on X on Sunday that debt markets have almost entirely shut off access to money for companies without substantial revenue independent of AI data centers. He predicted that 200-plus neoclouds will see "guppy-level death and consolidation."

SpaceX SPCX.O secured $40 billion of debt for chips with an affiliate of Apollo Global Management APO.N on Monday. Musk credited the rockets-to-AI firm's investment-grade rating and its Starlink and launch revenue.

AI cloud services firm Nebius NBIS.O last week secured a $3.5 billion financing facility ‌from Citi to fund the continued development of its data centers and GPU purchases as it races to expand capacity.

Argentum, led by founder and CEO Andrew Sobko, is an independent, institutional-grade AI cloud platform focused on deploying large-scale GPU infrastructure for enterprise AI. The Chicago-based startup was founded in 2025.

The startup signed a roughly $2.5 billion deal in May with cloud gaming firm Boosteroid and DL Invest for a 300-megawatt data center.

The company had said then that it was working with US financial institutions and investment banks on financing structures for future deployments.